THREAT OF WAR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26780, 25 May 1948, Page 6

THREAT OF WAR

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS WARNING BY CHIEF OF AIR STAFF P.A. WELLINGTON, May 24. It was highly probable that there would be another world war within the next two decades unless something were done about world government to introduce a reign of law into international relations, the Chief of Air StafT, Air Vice-marshal A. de T. Nevill, said in an address to the Hutt Valley Junior Chamber of Commerce to-night. In such a war, we were pretty certain .of being able to annihilate ourselves. He hoped the development of aviation and education and the reform of our social institutions would make it possible to avoid this catastrophe. Our political institutions and ' ideas all belonged to the pre-scientific era, said Vice-marshal Nevill, and while we all wanted to take advantage of science, we also wanted to defend the social idea that belonged to the period before the stage coach. The theory of absolute national sovereignty did not fit into the modern world —it would be just as sensible to go back to the old walled cities of the past. Modern nationalism and the atomic bomb were the greatest dangers to civilisation. What was wanted was not scientific inventors but social inventors and thinkers. This situation, he said, had been partly produced by the aeroplane which was also one of the most potent factors in its solution. It was writing the final chapter in the shrinking of the world. In Europe to-day, aviation could not take notice of international boundaries and, given rein, it would develop international friendship and encourage the grouping of nations. Vice-marshal Nevill praised ,the work of the international civil aviation organisation which, he said, had introduced the age of progress and law in the air which took about 300 years to develop on the sea. He described it as an outstanding example of international co-operation. Answering a question, the speaker said no one, would say the flying boat' had passed its usefulness for transport. A larger type of flying boat could be “pressurised” to fly at high levels.